In reference to His words:

“The travelers” [al-Tawbah 9:112] (1) and His words, “women devoted to travel” [al-Taḥrīm 66:5] (2).

As for the kind of siyāḥa that consists of roaming the wilderness without any specific objective, this is not a practice prescribed for this Ummah (3). For that reason Imām Aḥmad said,

“Such siyāḥa has nothing to do with Islam, nor was it ever the way of the Prophets or the righteous.” (4)

Yet some of our brethren have undertaken the very form of siyāḥa that is forbidden—either on the basis of some (mis)interpretation or simply because they were unaware of the prohibition (5). That practice stems from an innovated form of monasticism about which it is said, “There is no monasticism in Islam.” (6 – 7)

The aim here is to set forth what the ḥanīfiyyah has brought: to differ from the Jews in the hardness of heart that led them to neglect the remembrance of Allah and what He revealed (8-9), and to differ from the Christians in their innovated monasticism—even though some who claim knowledge or religiosity among us may be tested with a share of this, or of that (10).

A similar point is found in the ḥadīth narrated by Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both): he said, The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said… (11)